1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of document printing and more particularly to the security of printed documents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Network security has become the driving issue for information technologists in the management of information technology resources. Information technologists face a constant barrage of threats which range from network intrusions to viruses to rogue wireless access points and spam. Oftentimes, security threats within the enterprise are not the result of an independent, un-trusted force which cannot be controlled. Rather, in many instances, trusted parties within the enterprise shoulder the blame for security lapses through a lack of understanding of security concerns or sheer carelessness. Examples include the rampant distribution of corporate e-mail addresses, the careless activation of mail attachments, and the activation of open wireless access points.
One basic form of an avoidable security lapse relates to the printing of sensitive documents to a workgroup printer. In the printed document context, in many instances, end users print sensitive documents to an assigned network printer. Due to the distance between end users and an assigned network printer, however, it is possible that a substantial period of time can elapse from printing a sensitive document to the retrieval of the printed sensitive document. In the interim period, it is possible that an unauthorized party can access confidential or otherwise sensitive information disposed within the printed document. In some instances, the document can be removed by the unauthorized party.
To address this simple breach of security, several high profile providers of information technology and information technology consulting services have published guidelines for positioning workgroup printers in a private and controlled area, away from open spaces. More advanced solutions employ the use of personal identification codes which must be provided manually by the printing user before the workgroup printer will release a print job. Even more advanced solutions employ smartcards which, when inserted into a computing device coupled to the workgroup printer, permit the release of a printed document associated with the user encoded in the smartcard.
Notwithstanding, all of the foregoing solutions do not address the problem of a printed document which sits unattended within the workgroup printer (whether printed or not), or the worse case of an abandoned print job. Moreover, information technologists cannot accurately monitor the document retrieval behavior of end users in the enterprise. At best, an information technologist can monitor the workgroup printer to manually identify abandoned or lingering print jobs which have not been claimed. While corporate computing guidelines for many an enterprise specify a maximum period of time in which a document is to remain unclaimed at a workgroup printer, there is no guarantee that the guideline is followed by the end users in the enterprise.